This morning I had to get my kids to school early so that my son could participate in an Earth Day presentation. His class had gathered up all the wasted food from recent lunches at the school, weighed it, and did some math to figure out how much food on average was going to waste during each lunch at every school in our county. They presented their findings to the entire school and pointed out how the food is not only going to waste, but the resources spent in producing and transporting the food were also then wasted.
I’ve asked my kids in the past to bring home any food they don’t eat from their lunches (unless, of course, it’s something impractical like a half-eaten yogurt with no lid–I had to learn the hard way to point this out to my daughter) or else share anything they don’t want with someone at their lunch table. But the presentation today reminded me about being diligent. Too often I throw away uneaten food instead of taking the time to find a later use for it.
So that’s my resolution for this Earth Day–to use our food carefully. Maybe even prepare and eat a little less… Well, I don’t know about that, but I’ll, um, try. Do you have an Earth Day resolution? If so, what is it?
jamiesobrato.com 
Yes, we had a big Earth Day festival here at the office. About 8-9 vendors came and I managed to get my hands on 4 recyclable grocery bags. Of course, I’ve now officially done my grocery shopping twice since then and forgot the bags both times.
We’re also in the process of converting our back yard (which was about 6,000 sq ft of lawn when we bought it) to rock gardens, drought tolerant beds and a vegetable garden. Though I’ll admit, it’s more because I’m too cheap to pay for all that water than conservation.
I do like the double-bonus of cost savings when it comes to being green, though. Or is it the double-bonus of being green when you’re trying to cut living expenses? 😉
It is time for you to make a reappearance, missy!
Lori, I’m terrible about forgetting the darned shopping bags! I have a bunch of them lying around, and even when I keep them in the car I still forget to bring them into the store. So I’m a failure in that regard. But, I use paper bags from the grocery store for my garbage, so I feel like that’s a different but sorta kinda green way of dealing with garbage.
Okay, Cindy, point taken. I’m back! My last deadline nearly did me in.